KNOT HEART - Almeida Theatre

13Plot SummarySophie Stanton, Lisa Dillon and Margot LeicesterPhoto: Keith PattisonScene 10We are back at City Roads Drug Crisis Intervention Centre. Barbara, Lucy and Marina are together in aroom, as Lucy states that she is not returning home to her mother but instead is going to a hostel.Lucy has sent Barbara a letter saying that she wants to stand on her own two feet. Marina says thatLucy’s care worker will visit the hostel to help her. Barbara tries to understand what she has donewrong and reminisces about what a brilliant little girl Lucy was. Marina explains that after Lucysuddenly stopped taking her methadone, she had a significant relapse and that coming home iscurrently too much to deal with. Lucy is afraid to come home because Barbara will do whatever shewants, including bring her drugs. Barbara is still concerned with how Lucy will get back to work, aspeople will know she is living in a hostel. She asks what she should have done differently: by bringingher daughter drugs and clean needles she was protecting her from the dangers of dealers and crime,that when she had found her smoking cannabis at 13 she didn’t want to get her in trouble or push herbehaviour onto the streets. Lucy makes her mother promise that if she comes home she must neverenable her habit ever again, no matter how much she pleads. That she must always say no.Scene 11In a quiet corner in a café on Upper Street, Lucy meets Andrew, who is posing as an agent. We learnthat Lucy is no longer with her previous agent and Andrew flatters her saying that he used to love herpresenting on Animal House. Lucy says that she really misses working. Andrew has suggested that hemight have some work for Lucy but he has heard that the Executives at the BBC covered somethingup about the circumstances of her leaving, that he knows she had some sort of a breakdown. In orderto work together he needs her to be honest. We learn that it’s been over three years since the incidentat the BBC and Lucy reveals to him that she has been going to Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and thatshe has had a problem with drugs, which was what the BBC has covered up. We learn that the personwho covered up her drug use is now in charge of Children’s television at the BBC. Andrew challengesthat her addiction is not a real illness but just a dirty habit, and Lucy suddenly realises that he is notwhat he seems: far from being an agent offering to help her find work, he is actually a reporter from atabloid Sunday paper looking to get a juicy story. She is furious and throws her drink over him beforeleaving.Scene 12A few weeks later, a quiet Tuesday night in a bar in Islington. Lucy is meeting Angela as part of herResource Pack: The Knot of the Heart